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Satisfaction with banks about to turn a corner

Killian Plastow

— 1 minute read

31 August 2016

Bank satisfaction is lower than it was 12 months ago, according to market researcher Roy Morgan – but signs of improvement are emerging.

Both ANZ and the Commonwealth Bank saw increases in their satisfaction levels, by 0.7 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively, with NAB holding steady on the previous month’s data while Westpac saw a 0.4 per cent decline, Roy Morgan said.

“Over the year, home-loan customer satisfaction fell by 2.9 percentage points and other customers went down by 1.3 percentage points,” the research house said.

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Roy Morgan noted that while current satisfaction with the big four banks is 1.6 per cent lower than it was in July 2015, it is still comfortably higher than the long-term average.

“Something as complex and potentially slow-moving as bank satisfaction is subject to much short-term volatility, but when we compare it with 15 years ago, we see a very significant trend," Roy Morgan said.

“Fifteen years ago, 2001, satisfaction with the big four was only 55.5 per cent, a figure which has since risen to 79.7 per cent."

The big four banks have seen very similar growth in satisfaction levels during this 15-year period which, Roy Morgan said, “suggests that all four major banks are finding it difficult to gain a long-term advantage” over each other.

Satisfaction with banks overall saw a similar increase, climbing from 2001’s level of 58.8 per cent to the most recent figure of 81.5 per cent.